A Word With Artist Raphael Phillips About His Career & Wu-Troopers Project

Here at CISED, we “Celebrate Ill Shit Every Day,” from a consumer’s perspective. By “ill shit,” we mean the dope things that people out in the world are creating for the culture. I focus a lot on art toys and in my endless search for ones that speak to me and my folks, I was scrolling Instagram and came across these awesome sculpts titled the Notorious MODOK. I’m not a comic book/sci-fi superfan, but I found this work awesome and would gladly add it to my collection:

This is the work of Raphael Philips, an upstate New York-born, Baltimore/Roanoke, VA-raised artist who is now based in Los Angeles. Raphael’s titles include character sculptor and costume designer and he’s an impressive brother. He works mostly in the areas of film and video games and his clientele includes the likes of Rockstar Games, Grasshopper Manufacture Inc., Crytek GmbH, Kung Fu Factory, The Third Floor Inc., Robotoki, Motion Logic Studios, Confetti Special Effects Inc., White Moon Dreams and Sony Computer Entertainment America. While he has highbrow pieces that exquisitely capture the human form, he also has lowbrow/pop art (that’s not a diss here) which is right up my alley. All that aside, his most noticeable work is probably T.I.’s Dime Trap (2018) album art, which he contributed to by forming Tip’s head. 

A good bit of Raphael’s work is centered around hip-hop. The aforementioned T.I., the Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z have been muses for him and his work. Most recently, the pieces that caught my eye were his Wu-Trooper helmets. The iconic fusion is a collection of 3D renderings combining the Stormtroopers’ helmets from Star Wars and the personalities/characteristics of the nine original members of the Wu-Tang Clan (my favorite musical act of all time), the RZA, the GZA, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB). I was blown away by how I could guess most of them without reading the caption. Raphael really nailed each Killah Bee’s persona without using any facial features. The textured du-rags featured on a few of them are an extra fire touch. Raphael is selling prints of the Wu-Trooper collection, but this seems like a project that’d be ripe for a platform like Nifty Gateway. 

Check out the images below, along with a few words from Raphael that he was gracious enough to share in an exclusive interview:

Ghostface Killah

Raekwon

GZA

RZA

Ol Dirty Bastard (ODB)

Inspectah Deck

Masta Killa

U-God

Method Man

Did you go to art school? If so which one and what degree did you get? 

I went to SCAD and got a B.A. in 3D animation, buuut for this industry, it truly doesn't matter.  A 4-year degree is expensive and no one cares as long as you do good work (laughs).

At what point did you realize you had artistic ability? 

I was good at drawing ever since I can remember. By middle school, my ability to draw from what I saw (cartoons specifically) outpaced all my peers, and I knew that the arts were my only path in this life

How did you get into sculpting? 

Out of college, I started working at Rockstar Games. At that point, the shift was happening in the game industry, from poly modeling to sculpting with ZBrush. In order to stay relevant, I had to become a better sculptor 

Can you explain what you do as a costume designer? 

I am very new to costume design, as I just started last year. Basically, I help costume designers and directors achieve their vision by offering multiple iterations of designs, which is mostly art directed by the lead costume designer. I get to utilize sculpting and drawing, so it's the best of both worlds really.

Have you ever had any shows/exhibits? 

I have had shows many years ago under the banner of  'the 8-bit cubist', a collective of artists which was founded by my good friend, Benjamin Johnson. We primarily did video game-related art, given that we all met at Rockstar Games. But we tried to make it actually say something, rather than simply be fan art.  I'd like to think we were successful, but that's really up to the people that viewed and bought our stuff.

What is it about hip-hop that makes you incorporate it into so much of your work? 

Well, hip-hop is just such a part of my life, given the era we were born into. It's constantly changing, constantly growing and filled with people that are driven by passion, whether they get the big spotlight or not. These geniuses that craft these bars, create the beats, engineer the songs, etc, they give me life, and I just wanna make stuff that celebrates their ingenuity. It's my ultimate dream to help hip-hop artists create promo for their works by doing collaborative projects with them. I mean, trust, I have my own voice and things I want to say with my art that has nothing to do with music, but the hip-hop aspect is one important aspect of who I am.

What inspired you to make the Wu-Trooper helmets? 

A convo with a good friend last summer sparked the idea, and I finally acted on it after seeing a dope Stormtrooper design by Underverse.  It was a lot of fun.

Do you have any plans on actually making the helmets? 

Nah, printing and distributing the Notorious MODOK was very hard. Worth it, but hard. I'm content with selling Wu-Trooper prints at the moment (laughs).

Are there any plans for the Notorious MODOK? 

Well, first, I gotta shout out my man and fellow artist, Adam J. Rosenlund. I saw an illustration of Biggie he did in a MODOK chair years ago, and KNEW I had to make it (the one without the crown is the one I saw, the one with the crown is the illustration he made based off of my model, he did it for the Kickstarter, he's truly a good dude!). So I made it, put my spin on it, and then put it out in the world as a Kickstarter early last year. I hustled and even got awesome promo from Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin on a live Fatman Beyond podcast, but the Kickstarter didn't make it. The gold version of the statue was simply too expensive to produce and ultimately too expensive to sell. I shifted to a grey version of the model later that year, and it did quite well. Cheaper to make and sell, but again, it was a lot of work. I just recently fulfilled all the orders because manufacturing is complex. I say all that to say, I have no plans to further that statue’s production, unless I can find a good manufacturer here in Los Angeles.  

What can people expect from you in the future? 

Hmm, I got a lot planned for the year, more hip-hop inspired arts, video game arts and more yoga anatomy sculpts. I'm trying to see if I can hit the fan circuit and highbrow art circuit at the same time. It's possible to enjoy fast food and a 3 Michelin star restaurant. It doesn't have to be one or the other! (laughs)

Do you have any advice for up-and-coming artists? 

Do YOU!  There are seven billion-plus souls on this planet, which means that there are seven billion-plus views on this shared reality.  A person sharing their art has the chance to elevate all of us, so do it!

Prints of Raphael’s Wu-Trooper helmets can be purchased at his InPrnt shop. To follow his work, he can be followed on Instagram at @jehutysan or you can check out his official website at www.raph3d.com.

For the Diaspora shop, click here.

For the Black American shop, click here.

For flags, click here.

For books, click here.